More than just having a website with a good web design, studying buyer behaviors is instrumental in any marketing strategy. It is important that you understand the basic needs of your target market so you know how to fulfill them.
Normally, in a competitive market, buyers are keen to evaluate every product or service in order to acquire one that promises to meet their needs. Every time a business fails to fulfill the specific needs of buyers, its products’ value will decline in the eyes of consumers.
The bottom line: understanding buyer behaviors is critical for the success of any business.
There are three fundamental factors influencing consumer buyer behaviors: social and cultural factors, psychological factors, and personal factors.
1. Social and cultural factors
As a small business owner, it is prudent for you to analyze the social behavior and cultural practices and beliefs of your target market.
The two vary depending on geographical location, nationality, racial groups, and religion, among others. You need to study your buyer behaviors based on: subculture, social class, reference groups, family roles, and status.
Here’s an example:
Facebook and Google are examples of companies that use these parameters in their marketing strategies. For instance, you can customize Facebook adverts to target a specific social class of people.
Of course, Facebook uses data such as age, region, religion, and gender; people submit these data as they sign up for an account. Google uses the same strategy when it comes to advertising.
Those who do online marketing also customize their adverts using a wide range of tools and options that both Google and Facebook use.
Companies also use social class when it comes to pricing. In most cases, companies will target the developed countries with high-end products as opposed to the 3rd world countries.
For instance, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus accounted for 43% of iPhone sales in the U.S. (as reported by Fortune Magazine). Well, iPhone 7 is a high-end device, thus, it won’t make any economic sense for Apple to target developing countries in its early stages.
In short, a serious company/business must give culture and social factors a lot of attention when it comes to making their marketing strategy.
2. Psychological factors
This is a study of buyer behaviors based on their way of thinking. Ideally, the key pillars of psychological factors that influence consumer behavior include:
- Perception
- Motivation
- Beliefs
- Attitude
- Experience
Understanding consumer psychology can be one of the most challenging process. However, once you do, there is a high chance of business success. Let me give you two examples.
Can you recall the news about Samsung Galaxy Note 7? It was either exploding or catching fire, right? For a fact, consumers developed a negative attitude towards Note 7 — it could cause harm.
From other people’s experience (burning), people stopped buying the Note 7. As a result, Samsung had no option but to recall the devices and ultimately halt production.
What perception do most consumers have about Rolls Royce cars? These are definitely high-end cars that are associated with riches and wealth.
In other words, psychological factors highly influence consumer behaviors.
3. Personal factors
The key personal factors that influence consumer behaviors are:
- Personality
- Occupation
- Lifestyle
- Economic situation, and
- Self-concept.
These are basically factors that tend to define who you are. Consumers will change their need for a specific product with time. Therefore, it is important for you as a small business owner to help develop a product for every stage in your client’s life.
This is the reason why most companies tend to diversify in their manufacturing process to fulfill the five key aspects mentioned above.
Indeed, understanding buyer behavior is not as easy as one may think. You need a dedicated team, and not just a good web design or quality content in your blog, in order to have realistic objectives and strategies that can be implemented in a timely manner.
When you fail to pay attention to one of these factors, your product is likely to flop. In setting your marketing strategy, make sure to do proper market research and prioritize analyzing your target market to ensure you meet their needs.
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Originally published at www.bookmark.com on November 15, 2016.
